Technology trends, insights and news

July 31, 2006

When you do an overview of Silicon Valley's involvement in California statewide ballot initiatives past and present, you start with with the VC firm on top of Sand Hill Road. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has not only helped launch dozens of the tech industry's most successful companies, the firm is, at most, only one degree of separation from a vast majority of the top tech policy efforts.

Two of the boldest electoral initiatives yet to emerge from valley
interests will be on November's ballot: NetFlix founder and CEO Reed Hastings
and Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist John Doerr are backing
Proposition 88, an unprecedented statewide real estate parcel tax to
benefit education; and Vinod Khosla, another Kleiner partner, is behind
Proposition 87, a first-ever royalty on oil pumped from California to
fund alternative energy ventures.

We've covered former Vinod Khosla's Clean Alternative Energy Acthere. (BTW, he's now an "affiliated partner" of Kleiner and runs Khosla Ventures). It's his first initiative, but the Merc notes that Doerr and Hastings have been down this road before and provides a Valley scorecard on statewide ballot efforts...(plus, our look back after the jump)...

June 14, 2006

Read Tom Friedman's piece (behind "Select" firewall) in today's New York Times and you'll see his ongoing discussion of why General Motors is now getting their clocks cleaned. GM responds with lame attempt to counter Friedman's points with a "just the facts" page. But the truth is, they and all the American car companies could have seen where the world was headed just a few short years ago and prepared for the high gas prices we face now. They could have done this by doing what Toyota had done: Innovate for a world when hybrids and other fuel efficient choices were needed. Just the facts: Give Americans more fuel efficient choices and they will buy them! Don't keep marketing 9 mpg monster SUVs with $1.99 gas giveaways and then say you are being responsible because you make other high-mileage cars in your fleet that no one buys and you don't market well.

Some here at 463 were working in the U.S. Senate in the mid to late 90s when GM and others killed sensible improvements in average fuel efficiency (CAFE standards) because their short-term profits would be effected. And now, it's the American consumers who are paying the price. But we're glad to see innovative companies like IonAmerica, SunPower, Seattle Biodiesel and many others demonstrating commitment to creating new fuels that will no doubt help us out of the whole we're now in. Keep it up.

May 24, 2006

"During the first quarter, venture capitalists invested $513 million
into companies that have a clean-technology aspect to them, a six-year
high, according to the Cleantech Venture Network quarterly report, to
be released tomorrow.

"That's a 2.3% increase over the previous quarter, and a significant
52.9 percent jump over the same quarter a year ago. Moreover, a record
$357 million was invested into clean-tech energy companies."

[Kleiner partner]
John Doerr said to me: "Are we going to have any more Googles?" And I
said: "You're damn right we are, because we are at the point of new
wealth creation when it comes to green technology." John used to say
Google is the greatest legal creation of wealth [ed: He actually said it was the Internet -- not just Google], and I think the
greatest legal creation of wealth today is in the green area -- not
just in the U.S. but in the developed world. We have been looking at a
lot of things related to new fuels, such as ethanol, fuel cells,
advanced battery technology, and new ways of using biotech to make
fuels.... There will be an enormous amount of new [green] technology,
new wealth, and we are trying to create the Googles, the Microsofts of the new era. [Even] the garbage stream has a high value.

And this is just in the venture world. Established tech players like Sun Microsystems, Applied Materials and AMD are getting into the clean tech game in a big way, too. Why? Sure, some of it comes from being good corporate citizens. But, mostly, it's just good capitalism. And, that's the reason for optimism. If we had to rely on warm fuzzies to save the planet, we would soon be breaking out the 463 windsurf board to make our way down K Street.

The rest of the post highlights Kleiner's most high-profile partner John Doerr's clean-tech work (he says he is spending half of his time in this arena) and how the firm is creating a virtuous cycle of advocacy, innovation and environmentally friendly solutions. SiliconBeat also notes how quick and how big clean tech is growing. We agree. See more posts from The 463 on this topic. Also remember that the likely inclusion of the Clean Alternative Energy Act on the November California ballot will likely mean that clean tech hits a national media coverage tipping point.

And while, Floyd Kvamme only got one line in the SiliconBeat piece (he would probably prefer none), he is easily one of the most unsung heroes of Silicon Valley tech policy. The man has been leading industry efforts on a variety of issues since the 1960s (Kvamme was one of five founders of National Semiconductor in 1967). When the book is written on the history of tech policy, Kvamme will be seen as one of the very few key threads between the past and present.

(P.S. Kvamme is also one of the most humble and generous men you'll ever meet in Silicon Valley).

April 25, 2006

As Republicans and Democrats both take hits on oil companies making record profits in the shadow of upwardly spiraling gas prices, backers of the Clean Alternative Energy Act in California expect the turn in twice as many signatures needed to get their November initiative on the ballot. From the LA Times:

...backers of (the) initiative contend that
collecting as much as $380 million a year from an extraction tax on all oil
pumped from California fields and offshore platforms would fund research needed
to break what President Bush has described as the country's addiction to
oil

The campaign is expected to submit petitions with 1.2 million
signatures, about twice the number required by law, by the end of the month,
said Julie Buckner, a spokeswoman for the campaign. It is being bankrolled by
Hollywood movie producer Steve Bing and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod
Khosla.

High oil prices and profits, Buckner said, "are causing people to
stop and think."

April 05, 2006

Those concerned about California's economy would
do well to study the evolving political and social landscape around the
global warming issue. If California is out in front now, there could be
substantial economic benefits later.

April 02, 2006

While Washington is talking, states have taken the lead in innovation and efficiency technologies. Some 20 states now have "portfolio standards" that require utilities to increase their use of wind and other renewable sources. A 2002 California law that limits light vehicles' carbon dioxide emissions, and thus improves fuel economy, has since been endorsed by 10 other states.

Swisher throws in the one-two combo of US competitiveness and smart energy policy in explaining what's at stake:

March 24, 2006

California will likely be the site of what could be an important, seminal election battle over promoting clean energy at the expense of the oil industry (literally). The initiative campaign is being led by Sun Microsystems co-founder and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. The Economist writes this week:

(Khosla's) eyes have now turned towards a new target—the oil industry. He and
Stephen Bing, a flamboyant Hollywood producer, are financing a campaign
to get Californians to endorse clean energy in a state-wide vote next
November. “Californians for Clean Energy” will need to get more than
500,000 signatures just to make it onto the ballot. If it were then
passed, its effect would be to increase taxes on Californian oil
production by up to $380m a year, eventually raising billions of
dollars for investments in clean energy. The plan is to help California
cut its oil use by one-quarter within a decade, thereby setting a
powerful example for the rest of the world.

March 07, 2006

The run-up in the price of oil and other traditional fuels, along with
increased public policy focus on alternative fuel development, will help fire
a quadrupling of the market for clean energy technologies including
biofuels, photovoltaics, wind energy, and fuel cells, from $40 billion in
2005 to $167 billion by 2015.

February 23, 2006

Robbie Diamond, formerly a top policy advisor to Senator Joe Lieberman, has a great organization called Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE) that aims to reduce America's dependence on oil, addressing business and technology, politics and advocacy, and public education and media.

The Caveat

The opinions on postings are of individual 463 Communications partners and employees. They do not necessarily represent the opinions of 463 Communications, the firm, or our clients. Comments will remain posted at the sole discretion of 463.